Every so often the subject comes up of obesity and the idea that energy balance is the problem. People just simply eat too much and have too little self control and maybe move too little. Well there is probably a certain amount of truth to that idea, but it is not the whole story. I have posted numerous links over the last several years talking about the idea of it largely being controlled by hormones (insulin and glucagon to name a couple of important ones). But the idea still persists that it is only about the amount of calories taken in vs the calories expended (yet can be easily disproven by simply looking at type I diabetics that don't take their insulin - they can eat loads of food and calories yet completely waste away skin and bones, but I digress).

For anyone who wants to invest two hours in listening to Gary Taubes. who wrote a book on the subject with a bazillion references (Good Calories, Bad Calories), he will instruct you on the history of obesity study and how mainstream science can be wrong for so long even when there is evidence to the contrary. Even to this day.

For those with the time and inclination. We only have one of his books, "the case against sugar". He has written a number of books on the subject. You can search his name at a book store and come up with many titles.

For people who have tried every diet without long term success the presentation might give some good information.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbtxJZPviUo&t=2479s

Edit: the presentation is an hour long. The Q&A after is the second hour.
The energy balance idea is not wrong, it just does not tell any reason a person gets fat. As Taubes calls it, it is a tautology. It is true but useless information.

In my example of the type I diabetic above, the energy balance is there but is just not all measured. The calories going in is being peed out as glucose in the urine probably along with great amounts of ketones plus acetone in the breath not to mention heat out of all the body. So the calories in equals the calories out. But the person, rather than getting fat, gets emaciated and dies eventually with out insulin even if consuming 5,000 calories a day. So the calories in equals calories out, but it has no association with the person getting fat. So calories in equals calories out is true, it is just mostly meaningless. What the body does with the calories is what determines what goes to fat accumulation. That involves hormones as well as a number of other things. It is not as simple for many people of just "eat less and move more". Metabolism, hormones as well as many other things matter.